PSA: Stop using joint compound to fix screw pops... I finally learned why

I spent 3 years just filling screw pops with regular joint compound and sanding them down, wondering why they always came back after a season. Last month a foreman on a job in Phoenix showed me how the compound shrinks and pulls away from the screw head, leaving air pockets that crack again. Anyone else have a better trick for keeping screw pops fixed for good?

3 comments

3 Comments

lopez.quinn5d ago

Idk if you've tried this, but I started dimpling the screw heads a tiny bit deeper with a nail set before mudding them, and then using setting-type compound for the first coat. That stopped the cracks for me.

mila_campbell255d ago

Is it just me or does this kind of attention to the little details end up fixing like 90% of problems around the house? I think @lopez.quinn hit on something bigger here. So many times people blame the wrong thing, like bad mud or cheap screws, when it's really just not taking that extra 30 seconds to set the heads right. Same with paint prep or drilling pilot holes. The pros know it, but us regular folks learn it the hard way after staring at cracks for months. It's like that old saying about measure twice, cut once except nobody tells you the trimming and prep parts.

grace_campbell5d ago

Feel you on that - learned that one the hard way too.